Ilona Andrews Love

 

     I made Julie’s outfit from Blood Heir.  I know I should say Aurelia’s outfit, but she is Julie. 

     I loved Blood Heir just as I have always loved Julie ( and Derek, mmmmm Derek).  The best way I can think of to show my love is to make something.  I love all of the characters in all of the Ilona Andrews books, but I love some more than others. 

     In Magic Strikes, specifically, I loved when Kate went to her school, AND when she sat with Derek. I feel like, I have so many feelings in Julie's story throughout the series.  It helps that she is connected to Derek in my head, but she doesn't have to be to be a good character. I suppose I like angsty teenagers too. Even though she is an angsty teenager, she is also a pretty amazing human.  I feel lucky to have been able to watch her grow from a small girl to an adult in real time and not through flashbacks.

 “Julie cried. She knelt by Derek’s mangled body and cried, silent tears rolling down her cheeks.  I waited next to her. She needed to cry it out.  It hurt to look at him and she had to get through it, or she wouldn’t be able to help" (210).

 

 

     In January 2023, I started making the pants.  It took me awhile to draw them out, and then make them.  The pants are practical first.  That was the most important thing to me.  You don’t want a clothing malfunction when you are riding a horse and confronting boudas.

     Julie first rides into town in jeans.  “faded jeans, old boots, and a tattered cloak riding a horse late at night” (6).  I thrifted some jeans for this part.  They are amazing.  They have a lot of flair on the back which I really like.  In Magic Stars Julie is wearing short cut off shorts, and Derek is unhappy about it.  I took this to mean that Julie has a sense of style and wants to be as fashionable as she can.  Which isn’t too much considering where she lives.  

“I don’t need Desandra to teach me insults. And what the hell is it with all the comments about what I’m wearing? There’s nothing wrong with these shorts" (29).

     For the pants that I created, here is what I had to go on: “Under the cloak, I wore a green t-shirt, a pair of comfortable brown pants secured by a belt holding pouches of herbs, silver dust, and other useful things, and a pair of running shoes" (75).  Thanks for being so descriptive Ilona Andrews…

     Since I didn’t have much to go on, here is why I did what I did:  In Magic Stars we find out that manufacturing doesn’t really exist anymore.  “Yellow crime tape was too expensive to produce in the world that hated factories and plastics, and the cops rarely used it anymore" (19).  Also, we know her cloak was custom made, so her pants could have been too.  I also imagine sewing machines aren't going to work when the magic is up.  Not a problem, someone could be using an old treadle machine.  A treadle machine is foot powered no electricity needed.

      When I think of Atlanta, I think of heat and bugs.  I decided to choose the sewing pattern Hedy by Diby Club for the pants.  It is a wide leg pattern.  Wide leg doesn’t seem good in a place with creepy, crawly bugs.  The pants need to discourage things from crawling up your legs.  Also, Julie rides Tulip most places, and I don’t think wide, wide leg is ideal for riding a horse. I had to re-draw the Hedy pattern to be straight legged pants.  I decided on Hedy because fits me pretty perfectly.  I don’t have to make adjustments except with length.  This is crazy in clothes making.  If you find a pattern that fits with no adjustments, you make it over and over again and thank your lucky stars said pattern exists.  Even if I am trying to be Julie, I am still me, and the fit matters.  

Yes, I do realize this is a very Colorado picture.  

 

     The next step was choosing a fabric.  Julie lives in a tough world.  Rayon is not going to cut it, but she is also in Atlanta where it’s hot and where I'd probably like to wear rayon.  I decided to look at twill and denim.  I actually bought a lot of brown bottom weight fabric, but I decided to use the brown denim.  I would describe it as medium weight.  There is some give to it.  

 

The fabric is being stretched to fit in this photo as I crouch.  You can also see the inside of the cloak here.

 

     Then I considered what she does in the book.  She has a super secret silverbar and a house key.  Like all good fantasy characters, she seems to pull things out of thin air.  Which is great, but it’s hard to think about in the real world when making clothes. 

     I decided to focus on the silver piece and the key.  When she whips out her silver for the children, she is on her horse.  “I reached into my pocket, pulled out an ounce of silver, and held it up. Silver was the go-to metal for most magic-related work" (55).  The silver pocket needed to be easily accessible; she is not digging into the side pocket on the pants - that would put her off balance.  She is sitting on Tulip during this scene, so I put the pocket on the inside seam of the right leg.  It is just big enough for the silver piece (which is darn close to the correct size given in the story).  The three super secret pockets in the pants are all welt pockets which means they are harder to see by people around her.  At least for the silver pocket, it will also be pressed up against the horse.

 

     There are 2 more hidden but not hidden welt pockets.  One is high up on the left leg.  I put this one in to be the house key pocket.  It is a deep pocket, so she won’t lose her key while riding Tulip or climbing poles.  There is another pocket further down on the front right.  This has no real purpose except to be another place to store things.

 

  

In the photo, if you look just below the magic pouch, you can see the slit for the welt pocket.  I think this photo shows how well the welt blends in.

 

     In keeping with the idea that Julie wants to be fashionable, I embroidered a flower real small on the back yoke of the pants.  I did it in brown thread, so it is not very visible, but Julie knows she has something special or girly on her pants.

     The next thing I made was the cloak.  I sat on this one for a long time.  There are so many problems with this item of clothing.  First of all, I know she keeps her knife and other things in the cloak, but I did not add pockets.  This was a choice I felt I had to make to keep the shape of the cloak.  If I made this cloak out of a heavier wool, I could have put in a pocket and played with things a bit more, but that was not practical with my fabric choice.  The design of the cloak is very simple.  I did not change the pattern.  It ties closed in the front, but I also added a button to wrap one of the ties around if I wanted to close it a different way. 

     Thinking about wearing a heavy cloak in Atlanta sounds miserable.  So hot.  I looked at so much fabric it’s kinda crazy.  I first thought of wool (too hot), then tropical wool (too thin), then twill (little drape), and finally denim (drape?).  Sigh. I came across some wool from Ireland one day, and it looked right to me.  It’s beautiful.  It’s also not crazy heavy.  Heads-up, imported wool from Ireland is not cheap, but it’s so pretty.  I lined the cloak with a black sparkly linen (because it’s magic).  I am quite proud of the cloak as I think I nailed it.  However, on the summer night we took pictures, in Colorado, I was so hot.

     The next piece to the outfit was the t-shirt.  Again, Ilona Andrews says she is wearing a green shirt.  Helpful.  In my fabric stash I knew I had a dusty, green knit fabric.  I don’t remember where it came from anymore, but I think it is hemp.  I just made a plain old functional t-shirt using my favorite t-shirt pattern.  It looks a little rustic as it is kind of a rough weave.  I guess it’s not woven, it’s knit, but it’s rough. Also, I just noticed the pattern has been retired. 

     I chose all natural fibers.  I used wool, cotton, hemp, and linen.  I figure if the KD world doesn’t have much manufacturing and very little (if no) plastic, I can’t use polyester.  It’s just isn’t being made.  Maybe some old clothes survived, but new polyester isn’t a thing.  In case you didn’t know polyester is plastic, you know now.  I am forgiving whatever the fiber content is in the sparky linen because it’s magic.

 

The saddle bag is by my feet in this photograph.

 

     I have a few accessories involved in all of this as well.  First up is my saddle bag.  Right after I read Blood Heir the first time, I made a purse called The Mountain Saddle Bag with Tulip in mind.  I used black waxed canvas, so it looks worn.  I also embroidered drops of blood on it because of Tulip’s eating habits.  You can see the blood in the photograph above.

     I had a metal rose made for me.  I bought it on Etsy.  The woman who made it humored me when I told her what I wanted (do other people get metal roses made because of a book?).  It’s not made from a coffee can, but it is rustic metal with no paint.  It’s beautiful, and I love it so much.

 

“The Metal Rose– the Capital Ship of the BDH. This involves Julie and Derek, and the name is based on the scene from Chapter 11 of Magic Burns, when Derek fashioned her a rose out of a metal coffee can and some nails. Julie has kept the rose all this time, but some of us have carried it in our hearts for 14 long years. Unsurprisingly, Team Metal Rose is pretty hardcore. We would actually go down with this ship. We won’t put our hands up or surrender. There will be no white flag above our doors and omg am I dating myself.”  There is more on the Ilona Andrews website here

     Last accessory: I bought a potion pouch at Fan Expo last year, and it seems to fit the bill.  Unfortunately, it is made of vinyl, but I wasn’t up for making my own out of leather even though that would have been ideal.  It attaches on my belt just like Julie’s.

 

     I also bought boots from Thred Up just for the shoot.  They ended up being vinyl, but I couldn’t bring myself to buy leather boots for the shoot, so I broke my natural fibers rule for this as well. Also, she is wearing running shoes in the beginning, but all I have are yellow Vans, and that did not seem right, so I am wearing th boots the whole time.

This might be my favorite photo.

     I brainstormed quite a lot before I did this.  Julie’s clothes need to reflect Julie and Aurelia.  She is hiding in this book from multiple people, and all of her clothes are designed to help her blend in.  Even though Julie is a complicated character, her clothes need to be simple.  We need to underestimate her.   She’s a badass, but just like the cop in the church views her as naïve she needs to look that way.  The only people that truly see her are Luther and Derek.

 

     Yes, I did hide my face in each photo intentionally.  I am not young and not beautiful, and I didn't want to photoshop the crap out of my face, so that's what I did.  I also didn't hide my tattoo (which by the way, is werewolves) because no matter what I am retaining myself in this.

     All of the clothes I made will go into regular rotation after this.  As I think about what to call what I have done, I want to call it Cosplay, but I don’t think it is.  One of the reasons I don’t think it is, is because all of my makes are regular clothes that I will wear after this photoshoot.  Fun Fact: even though I finished making the pants and cloak months ago, I refused to wear them until AFTER the photoshoot.  

 

Here is a list of where I got things from AND my awesome photographer.

Hedy Pants - DIBY Club Patterns

Cloak - CosplaySewingNL - Etsy

T-Shirt - Idyllwild by Itch To Stitch

Metal Rose - KRKrafting

Mountain Saddle Bag - Emmaline Bags

Pixel 5280 did all the photographs!  Thank you Jodi THEY ARE AMAZING.

Here's a few more photos from the shoot:

 

I have started thinking about the next character to make, but I haven't gotten very far.  Any suggestions?

 

I am going to add "Mind on Paper" by Reason to Believe today.  One reason is simply Jon Bunch's voice, and the other is how important my brainstorming was to get this all put together.  I have so many notes about this.